Marion came back, and Randy pretended to whistle, acting like he hadn''t said a word.


    Debra turned to see Marion holding the ledger.


    "Was someone badmouthing me?" he asked.


    Randy shook his head. "No way. Everyone was praising you as a role model for modern men."


    "Really?"


    "Absolutely."


    Erica smacked his arm. "Stop the joke and let''s see the ledger."


    Debra spread it and said, "Based on our calctions, the Houston family''s foreign goods business made 300 thousand silver dors annually but spent 600 thousand. My family''s cosmetics business earned 100 thousand and spent 200 thousand. The Osborne family''s agricultural ventures brought in 200 thousand but lost 400 thousand. As for the Potter family... Their annual ie was 1.2 million, but the expenditure was zero."


    Randy mused, "So, our families were bleeding money to subsidize the Potters?"


    "Exactly." Debra nodded. "Those two elders imed the 1.2 million funded their intelligencework. But that amount''s way too high."


    She flipped open the Potter family''s ledger. The entries were quite different.


    "Here," Debra pointed at a section, "the Potters received 1.2 million but spent 2.4 million on goods procurement."


    Erica leaned in. "Saltpeter, firearms... Weren''t these banned back then?"


    "No wonder they needed so much cash," Debra muttered.


    "Contraband like that wasn''t just expensive. It was untouchable," Randy chimed in. "You needed connections even to get a whiff. Yet the Potters bought mountains of them? Wild."


    Erica shivered. "No wonder they hid this in the ancestral hall. During wartime, this stash would''ve gotten them executed on the spot."


    "But what''s this got to do with the hidden treasure?" Randy frowned "You''re not telling me our ancestors left behind a crate of illegal guns? Those things are ancient junk now."


    Erica turned to Debra. "Could we be wrong? Maybe these ledgers have nothing to do with the treasure?"


    "Right." Randy threw his hands up. "This isn''t a treasure map. If the mastermind behind all this was so


    treasure long ago."


    , they''d have found as ne


    Debra''s head snapped up. "What were you saying?"


    "Uh..." Randy blinked. "That if the mastermind was so skilled, they''d have found the treasure already?"